Diffrent As
by Gemini-2006
Summary: He thinks about her in different ways, but cant allow himself to get past a few barriers that wont allow him to let her in. Sten/Cousland.


I realized that there isn't any Sten romances, and its not possible to seduce him in the game no matter how friendly you get with him. I'm quiet partial to the strong, stoic type and he's such a mystery to everyone its just maddening. I think that you should be able to romance any character in the game regardless of man or woman.

But anyway this is what I think would happen if you could romance the Qunari.

Sten/ Cousland.

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She was different from the women he had met before, the women in his lands who were raised to remain in their proper place, not seeking to be different, to alter themselves. It was that part of the callow youth that both infuriated him and fascinated the Qunari soldier. Yet here he was still among the travelers, after retrieving his sword and finding out what exactly the Blight was, he could not bring himself to leave just yet.

He watched her in all her infuriating light as she laughed by the camp fire, her jade eyes wrinkled at the corners from her delight at some obscene human joke Alistiar had said. He felt a flare in his chest that had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with more positive feelings that he thought he would not feel in Ferelden.

She however caught him staring at her beyond the flames of the fire and she gave him a small smile that was reserved for him and him alone, a half smile that didn't show her true beauty. She was very cautious around him, guarded and unsure of what to say to him most times. On occasions she had tried to start conversations with him and he had entertained her by giving her an answer ,if only simple ones, and she had decided to pry deeper until there was a answer she did not know how to respond to.

"_You can stay with us"_ Had been her words, and that felt like it had been ages ago, ages since she had stopped being callow and started maturing, ages since he had not thought of her as a human but as a woman, and then not as a woman but a warrior. Once he had not thought her capable to achieve the feats she meant to achieve and then slowly she began to rally others behind her like the Chantry's Andraste . She had surprised him at every turn. But her dawdling, what he had come to see as weakness and insecurity had led them all over Ferelden in search of allies.

It was these thoughts that occupied the vanguards mind when he heard the red headed Warden woman approach him as he stood away from the fire, away from the others.

"Sten are you well?" She asked in that sweet voice that held to much compassion for Sten's taste.

"Yes" He simply replied turning to look down at her much smaller frame, those large eyes staring up at him like some lost animal, he was reminded of the kitten in Redcliff, the one of which Leliana had spotted him playing with. The sister had called him soft, and he would not , could not be known as such.

"Sten please I thought we had gotten passed all this" She said with a slight laugh. She was so annoying, so infuriating sometimes.

"We have gotten passed nothing, as you wander the lands there are darkspawn and an archdemon to be fought , yet you sit here and laugh and play to your heart's content, are the Grey Wardens not as the stories say" He said his tone more angry, more strict.

Delicate eyebrows frowned upon a fair face that turned away from him in a mix of hurt and anger. She seemed to want to leave him , and when he thought that she would she turned around again to face him with her rage.

"I can't battle the entire Blight and the archdemon on my own Sten…I cant work miracles" She said her tone matching his.

"And yet you have" He said in that monotone voice of his. He had seen her work miracles, seen her do things no other human could, seen her rise victorious through the Fade, and triumphant through the Deeproads.

"Not alone Sten…I couldn't have done those things without you or the others aiding me, you sale yourself to short. Now before you decide to say anything else condescending and offensive towards the neglect of my duties…come I think I should have more mead in my stomach" She said taking him by the hand, her fingers rough with callous. She had never touched him before, so he had never noticed just how the years of sword play had roughed her hands, it was a small thing to file away in the back of his mind.

She guided him to the fire where Alistair , the two rogues and the obnoxious dwarf were drinking something that smelled stronger then mead. He was not partial to drinking, especially socially. But when she filled the stone goblet full with the strong smelling stuff and offered it to him after taking a drink, he couldn't not do it, despite the knowledge of the approaching darkspawn plague.

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She smelled heavily of the sweet liquor they had drank, of sweat and vanilla, and the leather she wore as armor. The smell wasn't all together unpleasant, but it was different, the Qunari women smelled of incense and tea, of the fields and shore. Neither did Qunari women have hair the color of a blooming rose or eyes that gleamed like precious stones. And it seemed that everything about the small woman was meant to distract him from the ways of the Beresaad.

The human woman had drank herself into a stupor not long after she brought him over to the gathering, Oghren the dwarf had challenged her, and as always she held her ground. Though the battle was inevitably lost before she had begun and now she was leaning against the foreign giant like he was a tree to support her.

The first tickle of annoyance danced in his head and he nearly moved to allow her head to fall, smacking against the wooden log that was their seat.

"Awaken…the others have retired to their tents …it is time we to retire" He said standing. When he moved she clung, her eyes widening for a moment as she stared up at him. He stared back uncertain as to what was happening, and then he saw her tears.

The sudden appearance of them gave him cause for pause. He had never seen her tears before, or that look of utter anguish on her seemed to have awoken from some terrible nightmare, and now the edges were still there in her mind.

"I…I cant let them die…please..I cant let them die" Her voice held a small anxious shrill , unpleasant and pathetic. But she would not unlink from his arm, would not avert those pleading eyes. She was drunk and he knew she was probably remembering some foul memory.

"Mother, Father…don't take me away from them…they need me…I cant go " She pushed against him now and he let her go ,and she fell into the dirt by the dying embers of the camp fire, there was fear in her eyes. Standing she stumbled away from the tents, further away from the others. She was shamed, he knew, and he could not leave her alone to wallow in it.

He caught her standing against a tree, sturdier and more reliable then he. She had said earlier that they had become close enough to not be so distant , and yet he could not treat her as he wanted to, because that would mean for him to let his guard down, to open himself up to vulnerability.

"Please Sten…I need to be alone" She said leaning her spinning head against the coolness of the bark. She inhaled its earthy scent and she calmed a little. The solidness of the tree chased away the remnants of the terrible memory of abandoning her family.

"Do you not wish to talk...I know you like to" He asked simply stepping forward, reaching out a hand to let soft strands of rose colored hair to fall from his fingers. She felt the motion and turned to stare tear stained eyes into his. She was so much smaller, so fragile, so soft and unsure.

"I have no family…I couldn't save them…because of duty…because of the Warden's…I never asked to be a Grey Warden…yet they took me…they took me away and and…I couldn't save them" Her throat filled with burning tears and she hid her face against the tree.

He grabbed her face then and turned it upwards towards his, forced himself to stare at her tears, forced her to look at him as she cried.

"Do not hide your face in shame…mourn them openly" He said and it was as if the night air grew still with anticipation. Dark lashes fell against her cheeks as she closed her eyes letting the last of her tears roll down her flushed face.

He didn't know why he did it. It was not custom for a Qunari vanguard to involve themselves with other's outside the Clan, or at all for that matter, except for the occasional wench who was used to quell the soldiers "desires".

But the woman in his hand was no wench amidst soldiers; she was a warrior, and a proud woman who had never allowed herself to give in to her tears.

The kiss was unsure at first, a simple brush of lips against lips, but then she wanted to take it deeper. She wrapped her arms around his bent neck, amplifying the kiss and pressing her small lithe body against his. She ran the tip of her tongue against his parted lips tentatively, asking unsure to be let in. He obliged her with the same uncertainty and let one large hand wrap its away around her head and into her hair, taking a fistful of it as he growled into her mouth, his tongue exploring her mouth like a starved man. She tasted of the liquor, of sweet things and spices, his hand in her hair kept her secure against him as they worked their mouths feverishly.

He moved forward pushing her back against the tree and she moaned into his mouth in protest as a branch painfully pushed into her side. He pulled away from her then, remembering himself and who he was, and what they had to do. The moment was gone, washed away as soon as it came, and the two of them stood there in silence watching the other as they broke the kiss. Sten was the first to move, pushing himself away from the awkwardness as he looked down at the woman's face, flushed red with the force of the kiss.

"This is impossible" He said as she turned from her piercing eyes, licking his lips to get the taste of her off him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath reverting to a meditative mind to calm himself and the desire that had so suddenly burst in him.

"Haven't I already proved that I can overcome impossibilities "She said licking her own bruised lips. It was her turn to advance, to reach out her hand towards his face only to have his own quickly grab her wrist before she reached him.

"That is not what I meant" He said seriously. It had seemed that he now had no words to explain his reasoning. He let her wrist go, allowing it to fall to her side as she looked up at him.

"Then what did you mean?"She eyed him very seriously. He gave a disgruntled sigh giving her his full stare, yet she remained unflinching underneath it.

"You are either a woman or a warrior…you can not be both." He repeated the words he and said to her many nights ago by the camp fire.

"But I am…why does that matter at all"

"Because it confuses me…I do not couple with fellow warriors…and yet you are much a woman…you are soft and emotional and ….and…."He did not say the words he wanted to say instead he let the weight of the silence linger in the chill night air. They were so far north now that their normal attire was not adequate to hold back the cold, He saw her shiver as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"It is cold…and I have nothing more to say.." Sten's voice was filled with finality, he would say nothing more to her, things had already gotten really out of hand and the next stage would lead them to a place he wasn't sure he wanted to go. So many things factored into the situation that he did not want to think of them. She was so young to war. While he had seen many years in the field of battle, she had only begun to make a name for herself. Things that he deemed important by proxy was not as important to her. They were as different as water and stone. He turned moving himself towards his tent when she spoke again.

"Sten …" She was looking embarrassed and flushed still. He turned to look at her.

"Thank you" She simply said and ducked underneath the hide covering of her own tent. The words left him puzzled and during the night he could think of nothing but those words of gratitude that he felt he had not deserved.

"Ah _Vashna!_" He exclaimed loudly.

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edited...and I do believe I will continue this... I'm such a lazy bum though I feel I'll make grammar mistake for the rest of my you tho those who spotted them and told me.^.^ I like when people critique me and praise me..it softens the blow.


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